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Miscellaneous unorganized material/WVNY
Revision as of 03:39, 1 July 2010 WVNY is the ABC-affiliated television station for the state of Vermont, except Bennington and Windham Counties, and the North Country of New York State that is licensed to Burlington. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 13 from a transmitter on Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak. Owned by Lambert Broadcasting of Burlington, the station is operated by Smith Media, LLC through a local marketing agreement (LMA). This makes it sister station to Fox affiliate WFFF-TV and the two share studios on Mountain View Drive in Colchester. Syndicated programming on WVNY includes: Family Feud, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Deal or No Deal, and Everybody Loves Raymond. On cable, it can be seen on channel 4 on Comcast in Vermont and Charter in New York State. On Vidéotron in Montreal, it can be seen on channel 22. It can also be seen in that city on Illico channel 51 and in high definition on digital channel 651. Like most other stations in the Burlington/Plattsburgh market, WVNY has substantial viewership in Southern Quebec, Canada. This includes Montreal which is ten times larger than the viewership of its American coverage area. Repeaters In addition to its main signal, WVNY operates three analog repeaters. History WVNY began broadcasting on August 19, 1968. It was the first station in the area to air live broadcasts in color. In 1971, it switched its call letters to WEZF-TV to match its sister FM radio station. In 1982, the calls were switched back to WVNY. The station maintained studios on Shelburne Road (U.S. 7) in South Burlington. WVNY was the host station for the 1980 Winter Olympics and the famous Miracle on Ice ice hockey game between the United States and the Soviet Union. For many years it had to compete against fellow ABC affiliate WMTW-TV in Portland, Maine whose transmitter on Mount Washington covered most of Vermont. That station had been the ABC affiliate of record for the market until channel 22 signed-on and stayed on many of the area's cable systems well into the 1980s. During the 1980s until 1995, WVNY dropped ABC's General Hospital in favor of cartoons and aired Boston Red Sox baseball games on Friday nights. Viewers could still see General Hospital on CFCF-TV in Montreal. For a time, WVNY aired Canadian Football League football games. During the 1990s, the station frequently dropped network programming in favor of infomercials. As a result, several ABC shows were never seen in Montreal. Before WVNY was purchased by Lambert Broadcasting, it would pre-empt Jimmy Kimmel Live for the same purpose (at first only the last half hour of the show but later the whole hour). In 2004, WVNY became a sister station to WFFF after Lambert Broadcasting acquired WVNY and entered into a local media agreement (LMA) with Smith Media, the owner of WFFF. That company then moved WVNY into WFFF's Colchester facilities. WVNY-DT on channel 13 became the first VHF high definition station in the area when it signed on-air in 2006. The station became digital-only effective February 17, 2009. On that date, WVNY-DT remained on its current pre-transition channel assignment, VHF channel 13, identifying as channel 22.1 via PSIP. It had had difficulty achieving equivalent coverage with its digital signal compared to analog channel 22 raising concerns that some parts of Vermont will be left without a full-power ABC affiliate. This is now the case for Enosburg, Vermont in Franklin County. Channel 22 was given to WCAX-TV for its digital signal position. For viewers in Central Vermont, WVNY operates a low-powered analog repeater from Pico Peak in Killington (W63AD channel 63) that is still active after the transition. The other two New York analog repeaters also still work. News operation WVNY has made several attempts at airing newscasts but none of them have ever made any headway in the ratings against CBS affiliate WCAX and NBC affiliate WPTZ. Besides the difficulties of being the youngest network affiliate in the market, it was a UHF station in an area that is very mountainous. Those stations usually do not get good reception in rugged terrain. WVNY's last and best attempt at operating a news department began in August 1999 and its newscasts were known as ABC 22 News. However due to financial troubles, news production was shut down on September 12, 2003. This resulted in the termination of 25 newscast related personnel. From that point, WCAX and WPTZ operated well established local news operations. WCAX has traditionally had a Vermont focus in coverage while WPTZ tends to cover more from New York State. In 2005 after WVNY moved into WFFF's studios, Smith Media made an announcement that it was planning to start a news department for the two stations. After the creation of The CW and WFFF airing that network's programming at 10 P.M., there was some doubt as to the status of the WFFF and WVNY news department launch. In mid-July 2007, planning for a nightly 10 o'clock broadcast on WFFF started with the posting of news department related jobs on that station's website. This development was related to The CW being moved to WFFF-DT2 instead of airing in a delayed manner at 10 on the main channel. On November 26, advertisements started appearing on WFFF and WVNY for the launch of the 10 o'clock show (known as Fox 44 Local News at 10) which happened on December 3. From the start, WFFF's news set has been using remote controlled high definition cameras meaning it was the first to offer local news in high definition. Until August 2009, WCAX aired its local newscasts in widescreen 16x9 standard definition but that was not true high definition. WFFF's 10 o'clock production is not the first in the market because back on July 16, 2007, WCAX began producing a weeknight 10 o'clock newscast. This can be seen on its 24-hour local weather channel. On March 3, 2008, WFFF began to produce a weeknight 7 o'clock newscast on WVNY called Fox 44 Local News on ABC. It was the first station in the area to offer news at that time. The move to launch this production was due in part to the tough competition of local news at 6 o'clock on WCAX and WPTZ. As is the case on WFFF, the WVNY news is produced in high definition. The show airs at 6:30 on weekends to accommodate ABC programming. The broadcasts on this station mark the return of local news since it shut down its own news department. The only "ABC 22" identification on the news is in the intro package and the "bug" in the bottom right corner of the screen. On August 18, 2008, WFFF began airing a weekday morning newscast (entitled Fox 44 Local News This Morning) which runs from 7 to 9. Included in the launch were cut-ins on WVNY during its airing of Good Morning America. This occurs at :25 and :55 past the hour and the two stations simulcast each other. Eventually an hour of local morning news starting at 6 was added to WVNY. During weather segments, WVNY and WFFF use live NOAA National Weather Service radar data from three regional sites. It is presented on-screen in weather segments as "Sky Tracker Triple Doppler". The WVNY and WFFF news music package is the Fox owned-and-operated theme used by stations that are owned by the network. Newscast titles *''NewsCenter 22'' (1980s-1999) *''ABC 22 News'' (1999-2003) *''Fox 44 Local News on ABC'' (evening news, 2008-present) Station slogans *"You'll Love it on TV-22" (1985-1986, localized version of ABC ad campaign) *"Something's Happening on TV-22" (1987-1990, localized version of ABC ad campaign) *"Everyone is Watching TV-22" (1990-1992, localized version of ABC ad campaign) *"If it's Burlington/Plattsburgh, It Must Be TV-22" (1992-1993, localized version of ABC ad campaign) *"Vermont & New York's ABC Station" (2004-2007) *"Start Here" (2007-present, localized version of ABC ad campaign) News team Anchors *Julia Dunn - weekday mornings and reporter *Greg Navarro - weeknights and reporter *Lauren Maloney - weeknights and reporter *Nicole Estaphan - weekends and reporter Sky Tracker HD Meteorologists *Jason Caterina - Chief seen weekends *Nick Johnston - weeknights *Kerrin Jeromin - weekday mornings Sports *Kristian Read - Director seen weeknights *Whitney Read - weekends and sports reporter Reporters *Rachael Kent *Matt Austin *Brandon Hudson *Mitch Pittman *Natalie Paterson Photographers *Bob Conley *Tyson Foster *Steve Longchamp *Kyle DuBreuil Past personnel Anchors *Judy Simpson - weeknights at 6 **now weekday morning anchor at WCAX-TV *Eric Greene - weeknights at 6 and 11 **News Director and Executive Producer **now weekday morning anchor and talk host at News 12 Connecticut *Meredith Allan - weekday mornings **health and feature reporter *Carrie Blake - weekends and reporter *Nicole L'Huillier - weekends and reporter *Lara Yamada - weekends and reporter **now weeknight anchor at KITV *Elissa Burnell - weekends and reporter *Tabitha Soren - weeknights and reporter **Former MTV News correspondent Meteorologists *Tim Drawbridge - Chief seen weeknights **now weekend morning meteorologist at WNYT *Randy Mann - Chief seen weeknights **now fill-in meteorologist for KREM-TV *Dan Skeldon - Chief seen weeknights and weather reporter **now Chief at WMGM-TV *Chris Silveri - weekends and video journalist **now at WRGB-TV *Rich Hoffman - weekends **now seen on weekday mornings and noon at News 12 Long Island *Mark Tarello - now chief at KEYC-TV Sports *Andrew Catalon - Director seen weeknights **now news anchor and reporter at WNYT *Leo Doyle - Director seen weeknights *Jason Barr - weekends **was weekday afternoon news anchor at WMBF-TV *Bill Voth - weekends and sports reporter **now same position at WSOC-TV Reporters *Keith Baldi - now at WMTW *Ruth Dwyer - "A Hard Look" segment producer *Anya Huneke - now reporter at NECN] *Carl Leimer - now reporter at WVEC *Brendan McDonough - reporter and photographer *Ron Mott - fill-in anchor **now NBC News correspondent based in Atlanta *Kelly Reardon - went to Boston College Law School *Eszter Vajda - now at UNC-TV *Jenny Rizzo - now at WKBW-TV *Michael Henrich - now at KOKH-TV *Ben Kennedy - now at WPLG *Kelly LaVoie *Jaimarie Ely Others *Ken Schreiner - first News Director **now independent filmmaker based in Utah *Bill Colley - News Director *Peter Speciale - final News Director **now producer at Bloomberg Television *Travis Altman - producer *Barrie Dunsmore - "Views From Vermont" segment producer **retired ABC News correspondent *Courtney Davis - Chief Photographer *Dan Ferrigan - photographer **now filmmaker at Dungby Productions in Boston *Michael Ollendorff - photographer **now photographer at WESH-TV *Chuck Brame External links *WVNY "ABC 22" (can be entered into web-enabled mobile devices for wireless access) *WFFF-DT "Fox 44" *Query the FCC's TV station database for WVNY *Query the FCC's TV station database for W09BB *Query the FCC's TV station database for W55AI *Query the FCC's TV station database for W63AD